Having worked for some large, large organizations, I’ve had the following conversation several times.
Co-worker who isn’t in sales: “I want to be in sales.”
Me: “Why do you want to be in sales?”
Them: “They’ve got the best life. They don’t work very hard!”
Really? When that co-worker of mine punches their clock out at five o’clock, they’re done. Someone who is in sales isn’t done, if they’re doing it right. Unless they’ve done it for a really long time and put in their dues.
It’s a whole different world in sales. But from the perspective of outsiders, it can sometimes look like we don’t work very hard.
It looks easy!
Then they try it. Prospecting tends to be one of the big areas they don’t foresee.
“What do you mean, I have to pick up the phone and talk to strangers?”
“What do you mean, I have to do walk-in calls?”
Most people fail in sales because they fail at prospecting. They may be great at presenting, but it doesn’t matter if they don’t have anyone to present to. In fact, it doesn’t matter how good their service or product is, if they don’t have anybody to sell it to.
That’s why prospecting is such an important part of sales, and why sales is such an important part of every organization. And that’s something that most organizations miss.
Many organizations send their salespeople to workshops. Or maybe they go to what they consider the extreme by sending them to an eight week class. And those one time solutions just don’t work.
They don’t invest enough time on an ongoing basis in sales. If you want your business to succeed, remember that sales is the life-blood of every organization. Every organization out there is driven by sales. Invest your time and money appropriately.
